Tariq Ali's Blog, page 23

'Muammar Gaddafi's planned resignation speech'

'Muammar Gaddafi's planned resignation speech,' as seen by Tariq Ali, , February 25 2011

"It's raining outside which is why I cannot address you. Sorry. It seems to be raining inside my tent as well. Can this be rain? No. It's dogs polluting the uniforms of my bodyguards. No respect for women. Benghazi. I hate that city. Once I accidentally addressed my friend Berlusconi as Benghazi. Drunkards, pimps and religious extremists. I will bomb them again before I leave. I wish we had bought some drones so I could press button myself. My relations with the people are informal, based on friendship and fear. Why have they become so noisy and combative? I have many children. The British Foreign Office adopted one of them, my dear Saif, and wanted to put him on the throne, but that would have no effect on the intellectual landscape of the Jamahiriya.

I just received a tweet from Venezuela: 'Have you read The Autumn of the Patriarch by G.G. Marquez?' Why should I read this shit? Has G.G. Marquez read my science-fiction short stories 'Escape from Hell' that are even better than my little Green Book which is very nutty? They are set in an imaginary country with an imaginary ruler who kills his people and they rise and get rid of him. It's very funny story. It is popular in Arab lands. I met them, these jokers and stray dogs of Europe. Blair, Berlusconi, they are my friends, but now they ask me to go. Why? Did they not go? It's always raining in London. And that Roman pimp is always raining on his people. I will go when my time comes. When Allah summons me to discuss the political conjuncture. I like pizzas. Once there was a good pizza place in Tripoli. Much better pizzas than in Benghazi, but now all these shops are burning. Is it still raining? No? OK. Then I will go. Bury me in a colored shroud, not white. Bill Clinton. His penis should have been chopped off and fed to swine for letting Monica play with him when he was talking to heads of state. Men will be men, but that still upsets me. I never did that. Nor did Blair or Berlusconi.

I ruled this place for 42 years. And now it's raining. I'm sorry not to rule for 50 years. Mubarak was a stray dog, Ben Ali a pimp. Why they compare those rascals to me. I struggled against my own military dictatorship. I am not a rootless pot of excrement. What do you think? I will ask the people, but I need an umbrella. Who is raining? Am I raining on my own people? Just one last point, I need to address to my people. Remember this: States are counter-Being. Similarly, being is counter-state. Being is the activity of being alive, free, agile and uncontained. Being, when pursued rigorously, state(s) would wither away like Clinton's penis. States exist by 'neutralising' being. "State of being" is a moronic condition. However, 'normally' we exist in the moronic conditions. I am proud to be the Chief Moron in a moronic state. I will neutralise you all."

The Oil Wars and World Politics

This Spring, Union College's Minvera Series will address the theme "Oil: A World in Short Supply." Alongside speakers such as Mia Birk ("Pedaling toward a Healthier Planet"), Robin Blackburn ("Sweet Power: Global Powers and the Premium Commodity from Sugar to Oil"), Michael Klare ("The Perils of Extreme Oil: Extractive Strategies in the Twilight Era of Petroleum") and Rick Ott ("Exxon Valdez to Gulf Disaster: Changing the Endgame"), Tariq Ali will present a lecture entitled, "The Oil Wars and World Politics."

May 16, 2011

7.00pm – 9.00pm

Union College

Nott Memorial

807 Union Street

Schenectady, NY 12308

United States

'This is an Arab 1848. But US hegemony is only dented'

'This is an Arab 1848. But US hegemony is only dented' by Tariq Ali for the Guardian, February 22 2011

The refusal of the people to kiss or ignore the rod that has chastised them for so many decades has opened a new chapter in the history of the Arab nation. The absurd, if much vaunted, neocon notion that Arabs or Muslims were hostile to democracy has disappeared like parchment in fire.

Those who promoted such ideas appear to the most unhappy: Israel and its lobbyists in Euro-America; the arms industry, hurriedly trying to sell as much while it can (the British prime minister acting as a merchant of death at the Abu Dhabi arms fair); and the beleaguered rulers of Saudi Arabia, wondering whether the disease will spread to their tyrannical kingdom. Until now they have provided refuge to many a despot, but when the time comes where will the royal family seek refuge? They must be aware that their patrons will dump them without ceremony and claim they always favoured democracy.

If there is a comparison to be made with Europe it is 1848, when the revolutionary upheavals left only Britain and Spain untouched – even though Queen Victoria, thinking of the Chartists, feared otherwise. Writing to her besieged nephew on the Belgian throne, she expressing sympathy but wondered whether "we will all be slain in our beds". Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown or bejewelled headgear, and has billions stored in foreign banks.

Like Europeans in 1848 the Arab people are fighting against foreign domination (82% of Egyptians, a recent opinion poll revealed, have a "negative view of the US"); against the violation of their democratic rights; against an elite blinded by its own illegitimate wealth – and in favour of economic justice. This is different from the first wave of Arab nationalism, which was concerned principally with driving the remnants of the British empire out of the region. The Egyptians under Nasser nationalised the Suez canal and were invaded by Britain, France and Israel – but that was without Washington's permission, and the three were thus compelled to withdraw.

Cairo was triumphant. The pro-British monarchy was toppled by the 1958 revolution in Iraq, radicals took power in Damascus, a senior Saudi prince attempted a palace coup and fled to Cairo when it failed, armed struggles erupted in Yemen and Oman, and there was much talk of an Arab nation with three concurrent capitals. One side effect was an eccentric coup in Libya that brought a young, semi-literate officer, Muammar Gaddafi, to power. His Saudi enemies have always insisted that the coup was masterminded by British intelligence, just like the one that propelled Idi Amin to power in Uganda. Gaddafi's professed nationalism, modernism and radicalism were all for show, like his ghosted science-fiction short stories.

It never extended to his own people. Despite the oil wealth he refused to educate Libyans, or provide them with a health service or subsidised housing, squandering money on absurdist projects abroad – one of which was to divert a British plane carrying socialist and communist Sudanese oppositionists and handing them over to fellow dictator Gaafar Nimeiry in Sudan to be hanged, thus wrecking the possibility of any radical change in that country, with dire consequences, as we witness every day. At home he maintained a rigid tribal structure, thinking he could divide and buy tribes to stay in power. But no longer.

Israel's 1967 lightning war and victory sounded the death knell of Arab nationalism. Internecine conflicts in Syria and Iraq led to the victory of rightwing Ba'athists blessed by Washington. After Nasser's death and his successor Saadat's pyrrhic victory against Israel in 1973, Egypt's military elite decided to cut its losses, accepted annual billion-dollar subsidies from the US and do a deal with Tel Aviv. In return its dictator was honoured as a statesman by Euro-America, as was Saddam Hussein for a long time. If only they had left him to be removed by his people instead of by an ugly and destructive war and occupation, over a million dead and 5 million orphaned children.

The Arab revolutions, triggered by the economic crisis, have mobilised mass movements, but not every aspect of life has been called into question. Social, political and religious rights are becoming the subject of fierce controversy in Tunisia, but not elsewhere yet. No new political parties have emerged, an indication that the electoral battles to come will be contests between Arab liberalism and conservatism in the shape of the Muslim Brotherhood, modelling itself on Islamists in power in Turkey and Indonesia, and ensconced in the embrace of the US.

American hegemony in the region has been dented but not destroyed. The post-despot regimes are likely to be more independent, with a democratic system that is fresh and subversive and, hopefully, new constitutions enshrining social and political needs. But the military in Egypt and Tunisia will ensure nothing rash happens. The big worry for Euro-America is Bahrain. If its rulers are removed it will be difficult to prevent a democratic upheaval in Saudi Arabia. Can Washington afford to let that happen? Or will it deploy armed force to keep the Wahhabi kleptocrats in power?

A few decades ago the great Iraqi poet Muddafar al-Nawab, angered by a gathering of despots described as an Arab Summit, lost his cool:

… Mubarik, Mubarik,

Wealth and good health

Fax the news to the UN.

Camp after Camp and David,

Father of all your Camps.

Damn your fathers

Rotten Lot;

The stench of your bodies floods your nostrils … read more

"EEUU no quería un nuevo Tiananmen en la plaza Tahrir": Tariq Ali speaks to Público

Tariq Ali interviewed by Thilo Schäfer for Público, February 19 2011

En su famoso discurso en la Universidad de El Cairo en 2009, Obama predicaba la democracia, pero luego no hizo mucho para hacerlo realidad. ¿Los egipcios que acaban de derribar a Mubarak se acuerdan ahora de esto?

La gente en Egipto sabe perfectamente que ese régimen sólo duró 30 años gracias al apoyo de EEUU, que daba miles de millones de dólares al Ejército egipcio cada año. El Gobierno de Obama sólo cambió de actitud en el último minuto, cuando se dio cuenta de la dimensión que había adquirido la revuelta, con cinco o seis millones de personas en la calle el día después de que Mubarak se negó a marcharse. Entonces sólo podían optar entre la salida de Mubarak o una masacre y no creo que a EEUU le hubiera gustado que la plaza Tahrir se hubiera convertido en un nuevo Tiananmen.

¿Las revueltas árabes son un oportunidad o una maldición para Obama?

Todos los presidentes estadounidenses en los últimos 30 años han dicho siempre lo mismo: es precisa la creación de dos estados para israelíes y palestinos y debe haber democracia en el resto de Oriente Próximo. Hasta Bush decía esto. En la práctica siguen expandiéndose los asentamientos y el resto de Oriente Próximo sigue en manos de dictadores crueles. EEUU ha jugado a este juego durante mucho tiempo y ahora debe estar seriamente preocupado. Nadie pensaba que el régimen de Ben Alí en Túnez caería tan pronto. Cuando pasó, todos pensaban que si los tunecinos, considerados los más blandos del mundo árabe, son capaces de hacer esto, puede ocurrir en cualquier otra parte. Y días después de la caída de Ben Alí hubo protestas en Egipto, Argelia, Jordania, Yemen y Bahrein.

¿Las protestas en Bahrein pueden tener un impacto en la región del Golfo?

Lo que está pasando en Bahrein es muy importante porque un cambio allí haría temblar los cimientos de la monarquía saudí. Los estadounidenses están trabajando a marchas forzadas para ver cómo contener esto, cómo hacer concesiones sin perder el control general.

¿Cree que EEUU podría retirar el apoyo a la familia real de Arabia Saudí?

No, Washington continuará apoyando a la familia real porque es la única garantía para sus intereses. Pero sería ingenuo pensar que esta situación pueda durar 20 años más. Por primera vez en muchos años soy optimista con respeto a lo que pueda ocurrir en el mundo árabe. Esta idea que hemos escuchado tanto en Occidente de que los árabes no tienen interés en la democracia es una tontería, como ya habían mostrado las luchas democráticas en Pakistán e Indonesia. Pero debido a este concepto, los europeos mostraron muy poca solidaridad con los egipcios y los tunecinos. En los próximos años, los europeos quizá podrán aprender de los árabes cómo tratar a un régimen que no cumple lo que promete.

¿Cree que los cambios de régimen pueden producirse en otros países de la misma forma pacífica que en Egipto y Túnez?

Depende de lo que haga el Estado. Si el Ejército hubiera decidido matar a 10.000 personas en El Cairo, se habría producido una división dentro de las Fuerzas Armadas y la gente se habría alzado en armas. Mubarak quería esto, pero EEUU no le dejó. Queda por ver si en otros países árabes ocurrirá lo mismo.

En el libro dice que Obama no ha cambiado la política de Bush respecto al conflicto palestino, pero aun así mucha gente le considera antiisraelí.

Esto demuestra cómo ha cambiado el ambiente político en Israel. Ahora, la extrema derecha está en el poder. [El ministro de Exteriores] Lieberman es un semifascistaque vive en las colonias. Entonces es normal que un hombre como Obama, cuyo segundo nombre es Hussein y cuyo padre supuestamente era musulmán sea objeto de chantaje y presión por parte de los israelíes; y él lo acepta. El único presidente de EEUU en tiempos recientes que ha dicho que Jerusalén es la capital permanente de Israel ha sido Obama. Ni siquiera Bush lo dijo. Desde el punto de vista de los palestinos, Obama ha sido un desastre. read more

'Egypt's joy as Mubarak quits'

'Egypt's joy as Mubarak quits' by Tariq Ali for the Guardian,, February 11 2011

A joyous night in Cairo. What bliss to be alive, to be an Egyptian and an Arab. In Tahrir Square they're chanting, "Egypt is free" and "We won!"

The removal of Mubarak alone (and getting the bulk of his $40bn loot back for the national treasury), without any other reforms, would itself be experienced in the region and in Egypt as a huge political triumph. It will set new forces into motion. A nation that has witnessed miracles of mass mobilisations and a huge rise in popular political consciousness will not be easy to crush, as Tunisia demonstrates.

Arab history, despite appearances, is not static. Soon after the Israeli victory of 1967 that marked the defeat of secular Arab nationalism, one of the great Arab poets, Nizar Qabbani wrote:

Arab children,

Corn ears of the future,

You will break our chains.

Kill the opium in our heads,

Kill the illusions.

Arab children,

Don't read about our suffocated generation,

We are a hopeless case,

As worthless as a water-melon rind.

Don't read about us,

Don't ape us,

Don't accept us,

Don't accept our ideas,

We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.

Arab children,

Spring rain,

Corn ears of the future,

You are the generation that will overcome defeat.

How happy he would have been to seen his prophecy being fulfilled.

The new wave of mass opposition has happened at a time where there are no radical nationalist parties in the Arab world, and this has dictated the tactics: huge assemblies in symbolic spaces posing an immediate challenge to authority – as if to say, we are showing our strength, we don't want to test it because we neither organised for that nor are we prepared, but if you mow us down remember the world is watching.

This dependence on global public opinion is moving, but is also a sign of weakness. Had Obama and the Pentagon ordered the Egyptian army to clear the square – however high the cost – the generals would have obeyed orders, but it would have been an extremely risky operation for them, if not for Obama. It could have split the high command from ordinary soldiers and junior officers, many of whose relatives and families are demonstrating and many of whom know and feel that the masses are on the right side. That would have meant a revolutionary upheaval of a sort that neither Washington nor the Muslim Brotherhood – the party of cold calculation – desired.

The show of popular strength was enough to get rid of the current dictator. He'd only go if the US decided to take him away. After much wobbling, they did. They had no other serious option left. The victory, however, belongs to the Egyptian people whose unending courage and sacrifices made all this possible.read more

'Defend Wikileaks and Julian Assange'

At Conway Hall, London on February 7 2011

The Birth of Modern Europe and the Expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain

Embedded video from Cornell University

This footage is from an event Tariq Ali participated in at Cornell in September 2010 on the subject of his acclaimed Islam Quintet.

Tariq Ali en Zaragoza, Pamplona/Iruña y Madrid – 15,16 y 17 de febrero de 2011

Tariq Ali en Zaragoza, Pamplona/Iruña y Madrid. 15,16 y 17 de febrero de 2011

La Universidad Nómada presenta el ciclo de charlas, conferencias e intervenciones de Tariq Ali en Zaragoza, Pamplona/Iruña y Madrid para analizar cuáles son las tendencias de la presidencia de Barack Obama, las líneas centrales de su comportamiento como presidente de Estados Unidos tanto en política exterior e interior y las alianzas que está recreando en su país y en la escena internacional para implementar su proyecto político. También pretende evaluar el grado en que durante los dos primeros años de su mandato sus políticas han conseguido fracturar o romper en Estados Unidos e internacionalmente los grandes compromisos económicos, sociales, políticos y culturales. Se trata de evaluar su presidencia y las potencialidades de la misma para discutir qué tipo de políticas pueden llevar a cabo los movimientos.

Simultáneamente queremos analizar con Tariq Ali las recientes revueltas que han recorrido el Magreb y la profunda modificación de sus contenidos, formas de movilización y posibles perspectivas transformadoras de países sometidos a condiciones políticas autoritarias y a situaciones de dura explotación económica y social.

Por último, estas intervenciones pretenden evaluar al hilo de las problemáticas anteriores las políticas socio-económicas del Gobierno de Rodríguez Zapatero y su impacto sobre las clases trabajadoras y grupos sociales de este país así como la conexión de las mismas tanto con la apuesta de las elites globales para resolver la crisis sistémica del capitalismo desencadenada en 2008-2009 como con la situación política de la izquierda del Estado y el cierre de ciclo del síndrome Zapatero y la más que posible llegada al poder de la derecha dura del Partido Popular. El objetivo es comenzar a definir un nuevo espacio de intervención política en la provincia España al hilo de las siguientes citas electorales que en nuestra opinión han de funcionar como political stress tests para los nuevos sujetos políticos a fin de conformar un nuevo poder constituyente que haga emerger toda la potencia de los sujetos productivos y de la nueva composición técnica, política y social del trabajo vivo, que hoy no es reflejada ni gestionada correctamente ni por las instituciones públicas, ni por los partidos políticos ni por la clase política realmente existentes.

Martes, 15 de febrero de 2011, Zaragoza

Charla de Tariq Ali: «Obama, Zapatero, crisis, revueltas», previa intervención del CSL La Pantera Rossa, con motivo de la presentación de su nuevo libro El síndrome de Obama. Capitulación en Estados Unidos, guerra en el exterior Lugar: CENTRO SOCIAL LIBRERÍA LA PANTERA ROSSA

C/ San Vicente de Paúl 28, local 50001-Zaragoza. Hora: 19:30 horas Organiza: Centro Social Librería La Pantera Rossa & Universidad Nómada

Miércoles, 16 de febrero de 2011, Pamplona/Iruña

Conferencia de Tariq Ali: «Obama, crisis económica, revuelta global. Túnez, Egipto, Europa», con motivo de la presentación de su nuevo libro El síndrome de Obama. Capitulación en Estados Unidos, guerra en el exterior Lugar: Cines Golem Bayona

Avenida Bayona, 52

31008–Pamplona/Iruña Hora: 19:30 horas.

Organizan: La hormiga atómica Liburuak y Zabaldi & Universidad Nómada

Jueves, 17 de febrero de 2011, Madrid

Presentación del libro El síndrome de Obama, de Tariq Ali Conferencia de Tariq Ali «Crisis mundial y revueltas populares». Lugar: Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología

Campus de Somosaguas, s/n

28223–Pozuelo de Alarcón Hora: 13:00 horas

Le acompañan en la mesa: Heriberto Cairo (Decano de la Facultad), Carlos Prieto del Campo (Universidad Nómada, New Left Review), Alberto Montero (Fundación CEPS), Juan Carlos Monedero (La promotora) y Andrés Merino (AU Contrapoder)

Organizan: Universidad Nómada, New Left Review, Fundación CEPS, AU Contrapoder, La Promotora. Apoya: Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología-UCM

Conferencia de Tariq Ali en La Tabacalera, Centro Social Autogestionado «Obama, Zapatero, crisis, revueltas» Lugar: Calle Embajadores, 53

28012–Madrid Hora: 20:00 h.

Organizan: Universidad Nómada, New Left Review, Fundación CEPS, AU Contrapoder, La Promotora.

'Solidarity with the Egyptian people'

At the Stop the War solidarity with Egyptian people emergency demonstration, London, Saturday 5 February 2011

'Egypt Chaos Defines Bleeding in Despot Arab World'

'Egypt Chaos Defines Bleeding in Despot Arab World' by Tariq Ali for Bloomberg, February 4 2011

"Freedom lies behind a door closed shut," the great Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi wrote in the last century. "It can only be knocked down with a bleeding fist." More than that is bleeding in the Arab world at the moment.

The uprisings we are witnessing in Egypt have been a rude awakening for all those who imagined that the despots of the Arab world could be kept in place provided they continued to serve the needs of the West and their harsh methods weren't aired on CNN and BBC World. But while Western establishments lull themselves to sleep with fairy tales, ordinary citizens, who are defeated and demoralized, mull their revenge.

The French government seriously considered sending its paratroopers to save former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pleading with officials in Washington to delay Hosni Mubarak's departure from Egypt so that Israel has time to prepare for the likely outcome. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair is even describing the Egyptian dictator as a "force for good."

The almost 200 pro-democracy citizens who have been killed don't bother him too much. That's small beer compared with the tens of thousands dead in Iraq. And a desperate Palestine Liberation Organization is backing Mubarak and repressing solidarity demonstrations in Ramallah on the West Bank.

Hated Figures

In Yemen, another strongman in power for 30 years is beginning to totter. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is a hated figure, again backed by the West, as I discovered when I visited the country last year.

If Tunisia was a tremor, the Egyptian uprising has become an earthquake that is spreading throughout the region. The generals in Cairo are still refusing to disperse the crowds with tanks and bullets. A full-scale Tiananmen Square option, which Mubarak and his friends would have appreciated, becomes difficult in these conditions.

So what will they do? As the crisis moves a step further, Vice President Omar Suleiman, not trusted by many people as the former director of intelligence, is hoping to divide the opposition, clear the streets and negotiate a deal, offering Amr Moussa, the toothless head of the Arab League, the interim presidency. They want someone who will retain the remnants of the old institutions and, in particular, the apparatuses of the secret state that have been so useful in helping the West's policy of renditions in the war on terror, which has so far only succeeded in engendering more terror.

Total Overhaul

The millions of people in the streets of Egypt are demanding a total overhaul. They want, as in Tunisia, a new constitution that guarantees political and social rights. They want an independent foreign policy that is decided in Cairo, not Tel Aviv or Washington. They want to lift the blockade of Gaza so that its people can live as normally as possible.

This week, the Egyptian regime, shaken by the mass mobilizations, threatened counter-revolution. Pro-Mubarak forces, a combination of the security cops out of uniform and gangsters released from prison, attacked protesters, creating mayhem in Tahrir Square. The military, which pledged to defend public safety, failed to do so.

In Alexandria, there were clashes between Mubarak's desperate supporters and the anti-government protesters. The coming weekend is decisive. The planned march by several hundred thousand people on the presidential palace might drive Mubarak to get a helicopter to the airport. One assumes the Saudis are preparing a palace for him as is their wont.read more